Tikal!

After the craziness of Semana Santa now behind, and Antigua finally returning to normal I headed off for Tikal, located in the northern Peten Province of Guatemala, near to the boarders of Mexico and Belize. Making my way into the capital, Guatemala City, I boarded a bus for what would be a near 12 hour ride to the city of Flores. Thinking that booking a ticket for a coach bus would make the trip a bit more comfortable and less of a hassle, I was fine with spending a few more dollars. This however did not turn out to be the case. This was more or less just a chicken bus with some comfortable seats. Stopping everywhere to pick up and drop people off, this made for a long and incredibly crowded trip. This was not quite what I was expecting to be in for on this particular bus. It did end up getting interesting. When we stopped for a quick rest break and a chance to get some food, I ended up meeting some Honduran men that seemed rather friendly. Through some more conversation I found out that they were headed to the States, and yes probably in the way you may have guessed. These guys were illegals! This ended up turning out to be an incredible experience for me as I sat with Jose, a 19 year old Honduran making the trek for the boarder, learning about what they would have to go through in the following month or so, how the crossing works, why they are doing what they are doing and much more, but I am going to save that for another post because its a bit of a long story.
After arriving in Flores quite late, I bid farewell and good luck to the guys I had met on the bus and then made my way off to find a hostel for the night. The next morning I was quickly off to find a shuttle for the 1.5 hour trip further north to the tourist Mecca of Guatemala, Tikal. Packed with far more people than the mini bus was designed for we moved off into the jungle. Seeing signs warning of panther crossing and large snakes, I got quite excited about where I was going. Though it was destined to be a bit of an expensive trip I was looking forward to seeing the ruins that I have heard so much about.
Full of clean, old, rich, white tourists I just fit right in...only a bit dirtier, a lot younger, and with a lot less money.
I arrived at Tikal around noon, but waited until 3:30 to enter the park, because if I waited till then I would be able to use my ticket again the next day. with a ticket costing around $20 to get in I thought this would be wise. As a side note, the Guatemalan people get to enter for about $3, and I thought about trying to convince the guard I was a local but I'm not sure I would get through...maybe the lacking Spanish or possible the incredibly pasty white skin might give me away. So I bit the bullet and bought my white ticket.Walking though the "proper jungle with Tarzan vines and all," in the words of a English guy Will(who I met and lived with in Antigua for Semana Santa) I stumbled across the grandeur of Temple I. Sitting there in all its beauty, I stood dumbfounded, not really knowing what to do. In a bit of shock as to what was before me all I could really do was take pictures in hopes of capturing the this Mayan architectural masterpiece that has been tucked away in the Guatemalan jungle for hundreds of years. Wandering around the Grand Plaza, I tried to take in the beauty of it all. The place is so interesting and I found myself drifting off and thinking about what it would have been like years ago with all its original inhabitants, and also later to be the one to make the discovery of this place. Climbing Temple IV, I got an incredible panoramic view, and thoughts of "is this happening for real?" came into my head. It was so nice to walk around the grounds more or less alone, since most of the tourists has already gone back, allowing for some time alone on top of some of the temples. The one big downer to the Tikal is that there is so much backhanded dealing going on. If you want to climb some o the temples that are not allowed to be climbed, you will find a friendly guard there that is more than willing to let you go up for a few bucks. All I wanted to do was get some nice pictures and watch the sun set, and they were fine with that as long as they got some cash for it.
The next morning I return to the park early, so that I can have it to myself with out being smothered by tourists that would arrive later in the day. Walking around, I saw some of the other temples that I had skipped the previous day like Temple V. This one was huge, and to get to the top you had to climb a super sketch ladder to the top, and once there you felt as though you were going to fall all the way back down. But the view from there over the Grand Plaza was beautiful.
Tikal turned out to be a great experience and lived up to its name. It was another one of the things that I had planned on doing this time around and was glad to have accomplished it.
Later that afternoon, I made my way back to Flores and then down to Rio Dulce for the night before I would head on to Copan Ruinas, Honduras. Rio Dulce was a nice little town, but the hostel gave me new meaning to "don't let the bed bugs bite!" Yes, the next morning I was quite itchy.
From there I made my way on a series of buses to the Honduran boarder, and onto Copan Ruinas. A fairly painless experience, this is now where I find myself. This is the 6th country of the trip.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you have enjoyed the blog and catching up on what is going on. I would also encourage you to check out the link on the side, which shows all the places that I have been on the trip so far.

Bye for now

Mike